Tiger Lilly
by Brave-Phoenix
Summary: She said it matched him. How ironic, that it was with the language of flowers she chose to rebuke him. The Tiger Lilly... meaning 'cruelty'... [semi fluffy]


_**Disclaimer:**__ No own. If I did, I'd already have the east Texas ranch I want so badly._

_**Warning:**__ Severe OOC-ness, and lots of yummy SasuSaku goodness. __Bring a toothbrush. Sappy-fluffiness to abound._

**Tiger Lily **

_Iya-chan_

It hadn't been an unreasonable request. In fact, it was probably the most reasonable favor she had ever asked of him.

"Sasuke, would you just take it? I just thought it would be nice," she begged, extending her hand, which was holding a beautiful tiger lily, towards him. She smiled softly, her eyes twinkling just a bit. In her arms, there were several dozen of this vivacious orange flower, of which she now passed to him but one. Almost shyly, he took it from her, holding it softly. He was sure there was a catch. It wasn't a surprise when he immediately jumped to that conclusion, as she sighed heavily after giving it to him.

"What?" he asked, immediately suspicious. She cast him a smirk as she turned to go.

"You really are cruel, Sasuke. That's why I gave it to you; it's a perfect match."

"Sakura, what do you mean 'perfect match'?" he asked of her again. She giggled lightly, a little sadistically, truth be known, and she continued walking as she spoke, and he ran up and started walking backwards before her so he could see her face.

"Cruelty. The tiger lily symbolizes cruelty."

And that was the end of it. He was shocked, and she walked off, merely leaving him to contemplate her words. But he couldn't let it alone; the moment his pluck was once again in tact, he took off down the road after her; since when had Sakura _ever_ called him cruel in any other way than to tease him? He grabbed her shoulder and spun her around to look at him, much to the kunoichi's surprise. Swiftly grabbing the flowers from her arms, he dumped them onto a nearby park bench, pressing her into the seat and pinning her there.

"Since when have I been _cruel_ to _you_?" he queried. The shock wore off, and she smirked at him again. He actually looked a little _worried_ about this.

"Since the day I gave you my heart and you saw fit to break it."

It surprised him that she was so blatant, and she took the opportunity to gather up her flowers once again and slip away, leaving him to contemplate her answers once again. This time, he could not come after her.

_I __**saw fit**__ to break her heart…?_

* * *

Sasuke had been sitting on the park bench for several hours. Ok, so it wasn't that he didn't like Sakura; it wasn't that she wasn't pretty, either. Nor was it that she was always a total and complete nuisance.

In fact, several times he found himself admitting that he did, in fact, like her.

But it was the principle of the thing; she was still more of a fangirl than he liked. She was still annoying for a lot of the time. Mostly because he couldn't stop thinking about her on occasion.

Even in a game of Truth or Dare, you could never get him to admit it.

Her hair which had been cut at the Chuunin exams so many years ago had barely lengthened at all, still remaining only just a little past her shoulders. Her bright emerald eyes were an even more vibrant and enticing spring green then they had been back in the academy. She still liked the color red, but the only colors she could be seen wearing on a day-to-day basis consisted of clear, leafy greens, white and black. Quite a surprise it had been when she had so suddenly joined ANBU that year, as she was a particularly skilled medical nin, but he found that the tattoo on her arm looked strangely graceful when combined with her typical apparel. She had a tendency to move… almost cat-like— feminine and feline, lithe.

And shadow-like, too.

He could've heard her coming a mile away those years ago when he left, but since his return, he'd long realized that- to put it bluntly- she was silent as death and twice as unexpected when she wished it.

_But still… I'm cruel…? _When he thought of cruel, his departed brother quickly came to mind, and it was this that hurt him so badly. And then he thought back. When had she acted like a fangirl in any sense since his return?

Not once that he could remember.

* * *

Sakura walked into her bedroom three weeks later, and stretched, careful to avoid pulling anything too badly. She'd just returned from a particularly hard mission- disbanding the last of the Sound nins, destroying what she had to and capturing what she could- and the first thing she wanted to do was wash away the blood currently clotting in her hair and crusting beneath her nails, before falling into bed for a few _days_ sleep. But just on the corner of her dresser, she noticed something.

A Tiger Lily, and… an…

Amarillo…

_Sakura,_

_I guess it did fit, didn't it? But that was an awful __**cruel**__ way to tell me. Heh, but as way of apology, tell me what this flower means, and we'll call it even, right?_

_Sasuke _

She looked at it: soft, gentle blush pink, satiny, slightly-sparkly petals, and double layered, which was rare, or so Ino told her. And it brought a smile to her face.

_Amarillo… beauty… I guess we could call it even now… Just for… just for now…_

* * *

**AN: Cute little thing. So review the little thing and tell me what you think. Keep in mind, I DID write this about a year or so ago.**


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